Movies

Roger Ebert's comments on the importance of movies -

We are born into a box of space and time. We are who and when and what we are and we’re going to be that person until we die. But if we remain only that person, we will never grow and we will never change and things will never get better.

Movies are the most powerful empathy machine in all the arts. When I go to a great movie I can live somebody else’s life for a while. I can walk in somebody else’s shoes. I can see what it feels like to be a member of a different gender, a different race, a different economic class, to live in a different time, to have a different belief.

This is a liberalizing influence on me. It gives me a broader mind. It helps me to join my family of men and women on this planet. It helps me to identify with them, so I’m not just stuck being myself, day after day.

The great movies enlarge us, they civilize us, they make us more decent people.

All-time important to me

Meek's Cutoff (Reichardt, 2010)
Brick (Johnson, 2005)
All the President's Men (Pakula, 1976)
Fantastic Mr. Fox (Anderson, 2009)
Days of Heaven (Malick, 1978)
Before Sunset (Linklater, 2004)
Adaptation (Kaufman, 2002)
Chinatown (Polanski, 1974)
8 1/2 (Fellini, 1963)

I also love documentaries, and on average I probably enjoy them more than most narrative films. But I'm not sure if any rise to the level of the list above. I may want to put together a separate list for them.

Kelly Reichardt ranked

She is my favorite film director.

Meek's Cutoff (2010)
Certain Women (2016)
Showing Up (2022)
Wendy and Lucy (2008)
Night Moves (2013)
The Mastermind (2025)
First Cow (2019)
Old Joy (2006)

I have yet to see River of Grass (1994). And I should probably revisit Old Joy, which may be more meaningful now in my current stage of life.

Give me more of the Michelle Williams x Kelly Reichardt cinematic universe!